


zero day

by faith_girl222 (faithgirl)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-15
Updated: 2018-06-15
Packaged: 2019-05-23 16:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14938139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/faithgirl/pseuds/faith_girl222
Summary: They go back into the house together, and Sid is totally fine until Jeffrey thanks him for the trip outside."For sure," he says automatically.





	zero day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [pr_scatterbrain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/pr_scatterbrain/gifts).



At first, it seems like it's another mumps situation. Some weird new strain incubated by the insularity of the NHL. A bunch of western conference teams come down with it just after the All-Star Break. The first reported case in the eastern conference comes from people who at the ASG. But Sid feels fine, and he's grateful. A couple weeks later, a quarter of team is out with ... whatever it is. Everyone is feverish and grouchy, aggressive and withdrawn.

Geno is way worse at being sick than being injured to start with, and so between all those symptoms and his normal disposition he's driving Sid out of his mind. Staying at Geno's _is_ a good idea, because if Sid isn't sick yet he's probably immune, and the CDC wants them to reduce outside contact as much all possible. But Sid still regrets all his life choices.

"Sid," Geno whines. He's in a blanket cocoon in one of the recliners, peering spitefully out of it. It would be cute if Geno wasn't being so frustrating.

"Look, eat your soup or don't," Sid says, and abandons him in the theatre room.

It _is_ the worst and everything _does_ suck, but he really needs some fresh air if he isn't going to get into a fight that will only end when Geno falls asleep in the middle of a conversation again.

Jeffrey is in the downstairs hallway. He jumps all over Sid, getting slobber everywhere.

"Okay, okay -- you can come with me," Sid laughs, and shoves the dog out the backdoor ahead of him.

Spring is trying to come, Sid thinks. There's some green starting on the trees, the grass looks less sad. Sid is admiring it absently, enjoying the crisp air, Jeffrey snuffling around in the bushes nearby. It's a little chilly. Maybe he should have worn a hoodie.

"Sid! Sid!" someone says, interrupting his thoughts. Sid looks around, but there isn't anyone he can see. Geno's voice wouldn't carry this far.

"Look! Look! A squirrel!" someone speaks again, just as Jeffrey goes crashing off through the underbrush at the end edge of Geno's yard.

"Who's there?" Sid finally thinks to ask. One of the neighbour's kids?

"Who _is_ there?" Jeffrey asks, stopping at Sid's side.

"I --" Sid starts. "What?"

"Is there a bunny?" Jeffrey asks, and yeah, his mouth is definitely moving.

"I thought there was a human," Sid says. Maybe he's hallucinating. Maybe he is actually sick. He talks to dogs all the time, but they don't usually answer him.

"I don't smell anyone," Jeffrey says, his tail thwacking into Sid's calf.

They go back into the house together, and Sid is totally fine until Jeffrey thanks him for the trip outside.

"For sure," he says automatically.

The first thing he does when he gets back to the theatre room is blurt out, "So, has Jeffrey always talked and I just never noticed?"

"What you mean, Sid?" Geno asks around his soup spoon. At least he's eating. Maybe Sid can get some more fluids into him.

He sits down on the coffee table, and scrubs his hands through his hair. Sid feels pretty crazy, but Geno probably isn't going to remember this anyway. "We were in the backyard, and he talked to me."

"Jeffrey bark a lot. Is because he grow up with cat, always want to talk," Geno says with a shrug.

"He didn't bark."

"No? He speak Russian?"

Which--well, isn't it weirder and even less likely that Jeffrey would speak English? Completely ordinary, unremarkable-sounding English.

"No, English."

Geno laughs, and spills some of the soup. He glares at it where it's dotting his blanket. He's such a dork. Sid's heart squeezes a little, and he has to look away.

"I know, okay, I know." He drops heavily into the recliner next to Geno. "Maybe I caught your mumps 2.0, or whatever it is."

They don't talk about it for the rest of the day, and Jeffrey is content to sleep and eat and not really pay attention to Sid at all.

When he makes Geno go upstairs to sleep in an actual bed, Jeffrey wishes them good night from his dog bed in the foyer, and Sid almost misses a step.

"You didn't hear that?"

"What? Jeffrey is sad I not let him sleep in bed." Geno stumbles the rest of the way upstairs. "But he is blanket hog," Geno adds, lowering his voice conspiratorially.

"I do not!" Jeffrey's voice echoes up the stairwell, and Sid is really ready for today to be over.

***

The next day, Sid wakes up feeling like he's been hit with a tonne of bricks.

"Ugh." The sheets are sweaty and gross, and Sid peels himself off them. He feels awful, but he also has this creeping feeling, the hair standing up on his neck and arms. It's probably just a chill, but he lets the feeling drag him out of the room and down the hall to Geno's room.

The door is ajar, and inside there's bedding and clothes all over the floor. And dog hair.

"I thought you said Jeffrey wasn't allowed to sleep in here?"

There's no response.

Sid comes closer to the bed, but Geno isn't in the bed.

"What the fuck," Geno says from somewhere else in the room. He sounds weird, muffled.

Sid nudges the pile of bedding and clothes. It whines at him. It shifts until a nose is poking out, snuffling at his cautiously outstretched hand.

A large dog emerges from the pile. Its fur is a little shaggy, and its eyes are sleepy.

"Sid?" it asks.

"Geno?"

Jeffrey comes bolting into the room, and skids to a stop practically on top of the other dog. The maybe-Geno dog gets an intent sniffing from Jeffrey. Probably-Geno looks alarmed, but sniffs Jeffrey back.

Sid sits down on the edge of the bed, a little faint and suddenly feeling his aches anew. He zones out until there's a wet nose pressing against his hand. It's Pretty-Much-Definitely-Geno, making puppy eyes at him, only literally.

"Hey." He pets Geno's head shakily.

"Sid, Jeffrey says I'm not a dog."

"What?"

He shrugs his haunches, and it's so distractingly weird that Sid has to pet him there too.

"Jeffrey check, I smell wrong, like something else."

Sid pets Geno's ears, and considers his nose.

"If I suggested werewolf, would that be more or less crazy than everything else that's happened?"

Geno's phone starts vibrating on the side table, and Geno tries to pick it up before remembering he doesn't have hands or opposable thumbs.

Geno has about 3 dozen text messages from different people, 2 FaceTime requests from Max, and a Voicemail from his mom. Sid unlocks the phone and scrolls through the notifications.

"Well. Shea Webber turned into a werewolf in the waiting room of a walk-in medical clinic," Sid says, staring at the phone, of which there are now three.

Geno jumps up and pushes Sid back onto the bed, before scrambling up to join him. His big furry face suddenly looms in Sid's field of vision, his wet nose practically touching his own.

"Very pale, Sid." Geno makes a weird whining noise, not at all like any of his human noises.

"It's okay, I just don't feel good." What day is it? Sid fumbles Geno's phone around and opens the calendar app. "Oh hey, it is the full moon tonight. I guess that explains everything? Or something?"

His head hurts, and he wonders if this is all a coincidence. Does he just happen to be sick, or this all related, and he was never actually immune in the first place?

"Geno," Sid starts, but Geno is already shuffling around on the bed, tucking himself up against Sid's side. Jeffrey is still on the floor, looking anxious. "Get up here," Sid tells him, right before he passes out.

***

When Sid wakes up again, everything is very warm and very fuzzy. Weak sunlight is coming in through the window, and the room is dark. As his brain comes online, Sid realizes he isn't sore anymore, and the heat doesn't feel feverish. He feels safe. And Geno's mattress is truly excellent.

Sid opens his eyes, and the view is weird. Sid shifts around in the bed, moving from under Jeffrey and Geno, and oh hey, he was right. He doesn't have opposable thumbs anymore either. And definitely the weird view is because he has a _snout_.

There's a weird minute where Sid thinks _this is too much, this is too crazy_ , but then Geno licks his head.

Being a werewolf is temporary, right? And if like a quarter of the NHL are werewolves now, the league will have to figure something out.

He nuzzles back against Geno, settling into what he'd have to admit was a puppy pile, if there was someone here to ask him.

There was just something that didn't seem quite right ...

"But why could I understand Jeffrey and you couldn't?" Sid nudges Geno with the side of his head.

Jeffrey yawns hugely at them, shifting around. Maybe three is too few for a pile? Who else on the team was off sick? How many hockey players turned into werewolves does it take to make a puppy pile?

"Zhenya always understood me," Jeffrey suggests.

Geno makes a disagreeable noise and somehow shuffles the three of them closer together. "Jeffrey is pack, Sid is team. Now _Jeffrey and Sid_ are pack."

Sid isn't sure he totally understands, but he now lives in a world where people can turn into werewolves, so maybe he just needs to accept the world doesn't actually make sense.

Geno tucks Sid against him, resting his head on top. Sid's chest does that thing it does sometimes. They're way too close for Sid to distance himself from the feeling and ignore it, and he finds himself whining in distress.

"Sid," Geno says, nudging him and licking his face again. "Sid is okay. We pack now, and pack later. Not just for full moon. Not just because werewolf flu happen."

It makes Sid's chest feel gooey, and his sort-of-knees weak, and it's really weird having to lick Geno's face back instead of kissing him.

This definitely turned out better than the mumps did.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks to my beta for her endless patience <3


End file.
